Will Eddie Bring Dwight Down

Once more in this BLOG about the Dwight and Eddie soap opera given the new facts that have arisen since Henderson’s column last Thursday.

To be quite direct about it, I am so tired as I am sure that you are, dear reader, of the phoniness surrounding the DRIC Road/Greenlink so-called controversy. Do they think that we are complete fools as we are supposedly being manipulated by them and their entourage.

Who cares since we are going to get an upgraded Expressway and a cheap or at grade solution for Huron Church in the end.

I just do not understand Dwight Duncan. He has the most to lose in how this file is being handled and he is losing big time. He is the Minister of Finance of Ontario after all, one of the most powerful jobs in government in Canada. Why does he have to lower himself to the level of the Mayor of Windsor, Ontario, a small-town mayor who believes that he may have some authority and some clout. It is pathetic.

I have always suspected that what is going on is part of an orchestrated campaign especially because the Government of Ontario does not have money for this project until after 2010. That was pretty obvious with the Gong Show incident in Windsor where Dwight and his Cabinet colleague made complete fools of themselves by saying that $500 million was available for the project one day and then reneging on it the next. The Schwartz Report and Greenlink were both praised initially and then ignored. However, the stalling bought the Province lots of time.

Aren’t you tired of the games and the urban legends? Meeting in a car on the way to Toronto airport to decide a crucial issue to the economy of North America. How inappropriate. How childish. How immature.

Is this the best that a senior politician can do? Is that the way Government should operate? If so, somebody had better audit the books of the Province, and quickly, to see how they are being managed. Why is it necessary for Dwight to act in such a strange and bizarre way?

Does the Minister give us mere taxpayers direct information? No, it supposedly has to be leaked to us by some provincial government insider via the Windsor Star Chief Columnist. Presumably, the Minister is ashamed that he is being forced to eat crow by the Premier to keep our Mayor, or more likely the Windsor Star, onside. To be direct, the management of this file has made the Premier look foolish and not in control as well.

Have we now achieved peace in our time between the City and Province if what Gord said was true? Hardly, or is this part of the game too? There really cannot be a war at all because the Province is supreme over a municipality and can upload the roads that they want at any time that they want. So why do we need a charade that pretends that Eddie has any voice in this at all? He does not.

Mr. Henderson writes another column subsequently about tunneling. That does not make sense at all. Where is the compromise solution that was so close to being achieved? Why is he going back to tunnels and Schwunnels? Then the Mayor sets up a meeting about Greenlink two days before the DRIC open house to put pressure on the Province I assume. Isn't this all so confusing and so unexpected?

There are two alternatives:
1) if there was any hope of a deal, it has fallen apart, or
2) this is part of the game that Eddie negotiated with Dwight to try to demonstrate that he is still our Saviour. When DRIC offers some kind of insignificant tweaking after their open house and Eddie’s Greenlink session, he can claim a massive victory instead of his disastrous failure. The cheerleaders and sycophants will have their day. They will say that Eddie as the master negotiator who has achieved more than ever could have been expected knew when to hold them and when to fold them. It is the Buzz/Ken Sr. school of declaring victory when completely beaten.

It does not matter to me frankly which way it goes. As I have Blogged, as far as I am concerned, both DRIC and Greenlink are a waste of taxpayer money designed to enrich certain members of the private sector at our expense.

For Dwight however, this is a slap in the face to his ambitions. While I doubt that any member of the Opposition will ask for an Integrity Commissioner investigation or will raise this matter at Queen’s Park, nevertheless, it shows Dwight to be weak and ineffectual as a leader.

Whatever happened to the guy who had the nerve to say

• "THE MAYOR IS WRONG. THE MAYOR IS WRONG."

This is his file, not Sandra’s. He cannot pass off the responsibility to her. While he tried to be gracious to the Mayor and Council over their handling of the border file, and I commend him for that, nevertheless he is unable as a senior Minister to put the Mayor in his place. This is not the kind of person I want to lead the Province or the country in future.

There is of course one way for Dwight to salvage his reputation and his career in spite of everything. There is one way for him to make people forget about how Eddie seems to be making a fool out of him politically even though he is a Cabinet Minister. Dwight knows what to do. I don't have to tell him. All I know is that he is running out of time.

It is a shame. Dwight has achieved so much to fall now so far. Why? And for whom!